On Día de la Madre or what some call Mexican Mother’s Day, the writer Ana Castillo read a passage from her essay ‘My Mother’s Mexico,’ before a crowd assembled at Pen + Brush center in Manhattan. Castillo, the Chicana feminist writer who has published over 20 books of poetry, essays, and novels, is on a national tour promoting her memoir Black Dove: mamá, mi’jo and me.

Black Dove, a reference to the famous Mexican ranchera ‘Paloma Negra,’ is a collection of personal essays on the theme of motherhood. In it, Castillo tells stories of her strained relationship with her distant mother; the alternative mother figure she found in her flirty Tía Flora; her own experience as a single mother raising a brown boy in Chicago; and what it was like to eventually become an abuela.

For many Chicanas, Latinas, and brown women taking ethnic-studies classes for the first time, Ana Castillo’s relatable writing opened the door to ideas about feminism. Castillo is credited with coining the term ‘Xicanisma,’ to refer to Chicana feminism (in her dissertation and book Massacre of the Dreamers), and she was part of the first crew of Chicana feminists who began integrating ideas about race, class, ethnicity, and language into their writings and theories on feminism in the 70s – alongside peers like Norma Alarcón, Lucha Corpi, Sandra Cisneros, Gloria Anzaldúa, and Cherrie Moraga. At the reading, Castillo emphasized that at that time when she began writing, no brown or Latina women were being published. Now, she says, she can rest in peace knowing her granddaughter can go to a bookstore or library and see the likes of Sandra Cisneros and Texas poet laureate Carmen Tafolla on the bookshelves.

With her commanding presence, signature raven black hair, and apple-red lipstick, I can’t help but mention that Castillo is nothing short of intellectual and aesthetic #GOALS. During her conversation with Aurora Anaya-Cerda, owner of La Casa Azul Bookstore, she focused mostly on the contents of her memoir – essays she has written over a period of 20 years. However, a large part of the book and the discussion also revolved around the incarceration of her college-educated, cellist son, as well as the cycles of social inequality and racism that suck brown and black youth into the criminal justice system. “Today in 2016, when you are brown in this country, you’re still brown in this country. It doesn’t matter where I raised my son. If I raised him in the suburbs or in New York or in Gainesville, Florida. This is the experience he would have had– being perceived as a brown man.” Black Dove is a poetic reflection of the complicated and overlapping identities of being a daughter, a Chicana, a single mother, an artist, and a paloma negra.

Ana Castillo will continue her book tour throughout the month and summer. Here is a list of some of Black Dove’s tour dates:

Waves of brown and black people of all ethnicities and genders flooded St. Mary’s Park in the South Bronx on Thursday to show support for Democratic presidential primary candidate Bernie Sanders. The crowd, estimated at a whopping 18,500, challenged the “Bernie Bros” narrative that has permeated much of media conversation surrounding the candidate – a conversation that recently led to the #BernieMadeMeWhite hashtag rebuttal on social media.

#BernieMadeMeWhite entered the Twitter conversation after an American writer living in Japan became fed up with the media’s suggestion that Sanders is only winning with whites. As you can see in these photos from Thursday’s rally, the narrative that only white people are “Feeling the Bern” is far from the truth. Sanders is winning the young Latino vote 2 to 1, according to a recent report from NPR, and also has majority support among young black voters.

We attended Thurday’s South Bronx event to talk to supporters of a campaign that many assert hasn’t received the mainstream media coverage it deserves. One attendee’s poster read, “Hey, CNN are you seein’ this?”

Rosario Dawson, who has been on the campaign trail with Bernie and introduced him at several rallies, also referenced the media black-out claim in her speech, citing Trump’s $1.9 billion of free media coverage compared to Sanders’ $321 million.

Photo: Itzel Alejandra Martinez for Remezcla

Other speakers who showed up for Bernie included undocumented Dreamer Erika Andiola (who serves as Sanders’ National Latinx Press Secretary), Spike Lee, and René Pérez, aka Residente of Calle 13, who talked about Bernie’s historical opposition to the many dictatorships in Latin America, including Pinochet in Chile, Rios Montt in Guatemala, and Videla in Argentina. “If Senator Sanders wins the upcoming election, people will see the United States in a different light, ” Pérez said. “It will no longer be a country that invades, that provokes wars, that quiets people. It will not be a country that tortures or believes in colonies. Instead the United States will be a country that strives for unity, equality, and peace.”

While the entirety of the tremendous crowd could not get into the park where the main speeches took place, overflow spilled into an adjacent baseball field with a big screen and speakers broadcasting the speeches. And although some were irritated they wouldn’t get to see the Senator up-close after waiting in line for more than 4-5 hours, Bernie made a surprise entrance at the back of the field to deliver a quick yet impassioned speech to the overflow crowd before his main address inside the park. People climbed the fences and trees to get a better view.

In his main speech, Sanders went on to talk about the tenets of his political platform, which include access to free and quality public education, healthcare, affordable housing, the removal of marijuana from the federal list of dangerous drugs, and the elimination of privately-owned prisons among many other points. The Bernie chants were constant throughout the night, and “¡Sí se puede!” was one of them.

Remezcla had a chance to talk with people at the rally, including Bernie supporters and even some who were still on the fence about their candidate of choice. Here’s what they had to say:

“I found out about him over the summer and told my parents, and now they’re voting for him. I can’t vote though. I like how he’s very direct and straightforward about climate change. The other ones try to please everybody. There was a question about fracking where Hillary gave this long answer and he just said NO.” – Jacinta Bujanda

Edwin Cuevas, South Bronx, 27 years old.

“First and foremost Bernie is very moral. Same as the way I felt when I went for Obama. I sense it. I feel it. Bernie has no grip attached to him. Bernie is very original and there is nothing to doubt when you can see what he’s all about.”

Leanny Tineo, Bronx, 13 years old.

“I feel like Bernie has the passion to be a very good president. I feel like there’s going to be a new revolution that’s going to be good for us.”

Paulo Rivera, Brooklyn

“I’m here because my mind matters and my mind is part of a greater collective. I’m seeing that collective around me right now and it’s becoming one force. And that force cannot be ignored because the voice of that one force is unstoppable. I am so excited to be part of what’s looking like a revolution– a plain out revolution in America. I have not been excited for any presidential candidacy since back in the 70s since Jimmy Carter was around and I was knee high.”

Ingrid Morales, Los Angeles, 23 years old.

“I’m hoping to hear more of Sanders ideas about immigration reform and see where I stand after that. It affects my family, my friends, my neighbors. It’s an issue that affects all of the U.S. and there’s many people living in the shadows and we need to change that. We can’t live on forever like this.”

Wilson Ramones, New York, 18 years old.

“I’ve researched him and I see that he’s been consistent with what he’s said and what he’s done. For 30 years he’s been saying the same thing. He’s big in activism especially with civil rights. He likes grassroots politics and I really respect that.”

Kellen Insfran, Bronx, 21 years old.

“This is the first time I’m going to vote. The views he has seem more positive than Clinton and Trump of course. The fact that he was arrested for being in the Civil Rights Movement also really touches me. Black people and Hispanic people – we need that push especially from a white man. If a Hispanic man says what Bernie does, it’s not going to be as respected in our society. I hate to say that, but it’s true. Yes, he is a white man, but I see the sincerity in him. Also– the Republicans– we have to get them out of here. Once the Democrats are in, I think there will be a lot of good happening.”

Kaila Paulino, NYC, 24 years old.

“Today we are here to raise awareness about political prisoners. There are many political prisoners in this country. We are saying that all of these prisoners, that are prisoners of war who are fighting for freedom and for all people on this planet, do not deserve to lose their lives behind bars. It is completely unfair and unjust. We are saying hands off Assata Shakur and hands off our liberation warriors. I don’t really place much faith in this political system, so what I believe in is grassroots organizing and supporting those people who are constantly silenced. Any politician that wants to support a more just world, power to them but power to the people. “

Kyer Bustamante, Harlem, 46 years old.

“I came here with my husband, and I’m supporting Bernie because he’s very progressive. He wants us to have free college, and he’s very pro-gay rights, pro-equal rights. And no more wars. As a veteran, I think going to war for oil is not what we need. We need to chill out and relax.”

Raquel Rodriguez, Woodbury, CT, 21 years old.

“I am here to support Bernie Sanders because we finally have a candidate for the common people. People are scared these days. You turn on the news and everyone’s pointing blame at one party or another group of people. It’s stressful. And that’s part of the reason why people are in such a tizzy this election, and why there have been so many violent outbreaks at political rallies. Bernie Sanders is giving us a way to settle these problems without violence, without hatred, without anger. He’s really trying to get everyone to sit down and work together and that’s a beautiful thing.”

For Tejanos, it’s pretty common knowledge that for a party to be a success, a piñata has to be involved. Ain’t no party like a piñata party. Drawing on its cultural symbolism in Tejano culture, a local architect out of Austin has created a public art project called Las Piñatas. With the help of the City of Austin Art in Public Places Program, citizen architect David Goujon has erected three burro piñata sculptures at Edward Rendon Sr. Park on the East side of Austin, and will have a mass piñata-breaking picnic as a means to celebrate the Latino ancestry of Austin’s East side – an area that is rapidly gentrifying.

The installation went up October 17th to much of the community’s delight, with kids climbing all over the burros, families having picnics around them, and visitors snapping photos of the colorful art pieces. However, not everyone was as pleased with the piñata presence, and nine days after the sculptures were installed, they were vandalized.

Beer cans and muddy fishtailed tire tracks littered the scene where the three sculptures had been shoved over. “They weren’t destroyed but they were uprooted from their concrete foundation, which was no easy task. The people who did this stayed at it for a while, which is what really hurts,” Goujon, the artist who made the structures, said. The large sculptures were designed with a waffle construction that required 25 sheets of plywood each, and were sturdy. Park services told Goujon that this was the most vandalism they had seen on a sculpture since the initiation of the art in public places program. Someone really didn’t like the piñatas. Or maybe it was what they represented.

The project is inspired by Jumpolin, a family-owned piñata store that was illegally demolished overnight.

What’s ironic is that the project was inspired by the story of Jumpolin – the family-owned piñata store in East Austin that was illegally and unethically demolished overnight by newcomer developers in January of this year. The former Jumpolin site was left in shambles, a pile of rubble sprinkled with crushed piñata parts. Many handmade and imported piñatas perished in the destruction, as well as cash registers and other property, because the owners Sergio and Monica Lejarazu were not expecting the demolition; they had secured a lease until 2017. The tragic story spread like wildfire as evidence of the evils of gentrification and greedy insensitive developers. And in an interview about the razing of Jumpolin, one of the landlords Jordan French even compared the owners to cockroaches.

Austin’s East side is one of the more rapidly gentrifying parts of a city where rents are skyrocketing, new condos are sprouting at high rates, and people who have lived there for decades are being pushed out. Goujon says there’s a reason people are attracted to Austin and it’s because of this diversity and culture. Not to mention the foods. People want the juicy tacos, bubbling queso, and icy margaritas, but not the Mexicans, Mexican-Americans and their long-standing businesses? “We have to be able to show resiliency,” Goujon says. “These acts of destruction will not tear down the community. The Hispanic culture here is going to persevere.”

These acts of destruction will not tear us down. The Hispanic culture here is going to persevere.

He says the community’s response to the sculpture’s vandalism has been humbling. In fact, the whole chain of events has become a motivator to make his project even stronger in order to emphasize and honor Austin’s Latino heritage. Goujon wants to focus on getting as much of the community to come out for the Piñata Picnic event on November 14th. The event welcomes all neighbors – new and old residents – in an effort to unite people of the neighborhood. There will be a free piñata for everyone who comes and even a moonwalk provided by the former owners of Jumpolin. In order to make this event happen, Goujon is asking the community to pitch in by contributing to acrowdfunding campaign. Proceeds will go to reinvigorating local piñata businesses and to a scholarship fund distributed by Latinos in Architecture– a committee of the American Institute of Architects.

The symbols of our culture can be so pertinent to our trials. The piñata is a beautiful piece of craftsmanship that must be destroyed for its purpose to be fully realized. Goujon recalls sitting next to the damaged burros, heavy creatures knocked down on their sides, and calling Sergio Lejarazu who said, “They tore down my store, and they tore down your piñatas, but we have to show them we’re better than that.”

“It’s incredible because I’m here trying to support them, and here they are supporting me.”

As a thoughtful way to conclude your travels through the Young Lords, contemporary collage, and Rodriguez Calero exhibits at Museo del Barrio, stop by the last stretch of the museum, which holds a mini exhibit of migrant-themed block prints by artists. The prints elucidate various aspects of the migrant experience, including labor, border mentalities, the building of communities, and the migrant’s persevering spirit.

The messages of migrant empowerment embedded in the works come amid a political climate where immigration activists are spit upon, pulled by their hair, and violently assaulted at Trump political rallies. While the orange-faced billionaire vilifies undocumented immigrants and threatens mass deportations if elected, mainstream media plays along. They help spread the xenophobia with disrespectful language– like calling people “illegals” – and targeted story choices about immigrant crime. CultureStrike’s works are an antidote and a rebuttal to politicians who blame the undocumented for many of the nation’s economic woes, claiming they don’t pay taxes, siphon resources like education and healthcare, and ”steal” jobs from “real” Americans.

Consider Oree Originol’s piece, depicting a fruit picker and a student or possible community organizer work side by side. The words ‘Mi Labor Sostiene a la Comunidad’ float across the image. The words are an assertion: my labor, my sweat, my hands nourish and sustain the community. Even though the United States is powered by and relies on migrant labor, migrants are one of the least respected labor groups, working for minimal wages with little protection from exploitative employers. The apple is also a choice inclusion – a reminder that every time you sit in front of a salad, you are enjoying a plate delivered to you by migrant labor.

The idea that a border wall will keep people from migrating is a conservative pipe dream. You can’t kill an ancient human instinct.

The apples in Oree’s print can also be interpreted as an allusion to Apple the brand. In this reading, the work points out that migrant workers not only do back-breaking work like harvest fruit and vegetables, they are also intellectuals, thinkers, and academics. There’s a message in this piece that it’s time to create more nuanced, complex depictions of migrants; to give them voice without singularizing their experience.

Other concepts in the works are freedom beyond borders. Erin Yoshi’s piece features birds that pierce the ropes that bind someone’s hands. The caption is ‘No Borders Fly Free,’ a similar sentiment to ‘Move Freely’ in DJ Agana’s print, where a woman doubly rendered as the Virgen of Guadalupe and the Statue of Liberty wears guaraches as she walks over rain clouds and holds a torch made of corn. She’s encircled by sun rays like those jutting from the Virgen de Guadalupe. Both works illustrate the idea that people will progress and move regardless of political climates, regardless of their assigned nationality, and regardless of the flushed-faced haters who have forgotten that they too descend from immigrants. The idea that a border wall will keep people from migrating, from escaping, from moving is just a conservative pipe dream. You can’t kill an ancient human instinct.

Lastly, in Santi Armengod’s print, two young girls swirl around a caracol – a symbol for movement and community – as if in a dream. The girls are in a peaceful trance, yet one is marked with the symbol of resistance – a Zapatista mask. Optimism is all good and dandy, but nothing is won without struggle, the piece suggests. ‘Mija, haven’t you learned by now that there are fields of soldados, soldiers swimming through your veins’ is another reference to struggle in Rommy Torrico’s print– a portrait filled with the battle scars left by 287G, deportation, border laws, NAFTA, and the spirits of those who didn’t survive the fight.

The message is that in order to rise and in order to assert an existence, you have to fight and demand to be heard. And that is the exhibit’s function. It’s asking for the migrant experience to be recognized as part of a collective humanity.

Have you ever fantasized about getting revenge on the gangster bully that tormented you as a kid? Are you still salty about the humiliations you experienced at the hands of the local cholo? Maybe it was worse than humiliation, maybe they terrorized you and your friends by robbing you, beating you senseless, or inspiring an omnipresent fear that left you feeling powerless. Well, these sculptural artworks that depict the tattooed bodies of MS-13 and 18th street gangbangers skinned and splayed like animal rugs might provide some type of psychological catharsis.

But the Mexican artist behind these striking works, Renato Garza Cervera, had a very different intention with his quite terrifying series ‘Of Genuine Contemporary Beast.’ Cervera began the project in 2005, after seeing reports of Mara Salvatrucha gang members caged in cells, as though they were zoo animals. He began contemplating the images of Latino gangsters that appeared in the media, and which functioned as an “othering” and a dehumanization of people grasping at power in the only ways available to them.

Even though they look realistic, the rug sculptures are not literally made from human skin. The bald heads and skin are made from leather, polyester, and polyurethane foam. The squinted eyes are made from glass, and wax colored pencils were used for the tattoos covering the body including the face, head, and the bottoms of feet.

The threatening facial expressions, displaying gritted teeth are what make the pieces scary, but the tattoos are actually the more humanizing aspect of the artworks. Besides the obviously gang-inspired tattoos, there are mundane markings of names like Milton, Stephanie, and Martha. One sculpture even has a buttcheek tattoo of a teddy bear holding a flower. Cervera is literally objectifying the gangster concept and turning it into a deconstructed rug – something meant to be trampled. Could he be suggesting this was always the case? Gang members have always occupied the underbelly of society, and maybe instead of seeing them as one-dimensional criminal killers, we should consider the societal circumstances that created them.

Gangs and gangsters are a complicated societal product. Many times people join gangs out of hopelessness– they see no way out of their poverty and gangs provide a sense of belonging, family, and larger community. According to Latino gang scholar James Diego Vigil, “For many cholos, the gang subculture provides a source of identity and avenues for personal fulfillment.” Racism, white supremacy, and an overwhelming lack of resources in communities of color don’t do much to deter youth from crime or gang life either.

There’s an interesting variance in the way the Latino community views gangsters. I have many friends who detest cholos and gang members, were bullied by them, and have nothing but disdain for the subculture. Others have a more empathetic lens due to family members who got involved in gang life early on, out of a need for their own sense of control. Then there’s those who glamorize the powerful, notorious gangsters, and revere their dangerous lifestyle. [Ed Note: For more on the complicated nature of this reverence, check out our review of the film Narco Cultura.]

But I believe most Latinos have a sprinkle of each of these views. While the nuanced views of people who have corollary experience with gang subculture are often missing from the larger world of media, news, and sensationalism, Cervera’s “rugs” may allow one to understand that gangsters – even Latino gangsters – are people.

Maybe one day we won’t have to see brown bodies symbolically skinned in order to understand that concept.

This weekend is Brooklyn Zine Fest where all the nerds, hipsters, fanboys and fangurls unite to show off freshly printed copies of their DIY booklets, containing cult connoisseurship, illustrations and comics, and lots of obscure knowledge. Not sure what a zine is? Well.. many still aren’t. That’s kind of the the root nature of the elusive zine and its niche audiences.

A zine is a booklet of any size or shape made independently, and it usually deals in an ultra-specialized, underground, or taboo topic. Zines can be heady or academic, say, a collection of essays on anarcho-feminism; they can be artsy and illustrative, including comic book cats who fight crime or drawings of smiling succulents. They can be serious, silly, educational or simply beautiful. These homemade booklets are a cheap way to publish content and spread ideas and images that might not get expressed were it left up to corporate or even independent publishers. Therefore, zine-making and outlets for zine exhibition put the power of knowledge exchange in the hands of the people.

Honestly, as a previous attendee I know that Brooklyn Zine Fest is overwhelmingly gringo, even though people of color, minorities, and queer communities have BEEN using DIY measures such as zines to tell their stories and share enlightening information left out of traditional avenues. However, there are a sprinkling of Latin@ exhibitors of note at this year’s fest.

I wanted to highlight a few of these exhibitors at Brooklyn Zine Fest but also encourage other Latin@s to start making zines. Imagine the multitude of topics the diverse rainbow of Latinidad could be covering???? In the zines of my dreams, there are zines compiling motivational Selena quotes, zines outlining notes on Xicana feminism, zines documenting our abuelitas use of herbs and natural remedies, and zines assembling pozole recipes.

On that note, please go to this year’s zine fest, get inspired, and start making some zines gente! The event is both on Friday and Saturday, April 25th and 26th, with different exhibitors each day.

Vice Versa Press

As a part of Vice Versa Press, Julia Arredondo is quite a zine-making star. Her zines include ‘Baltimore Break Ups: A Pop-Up Memoir,’ ‘Guide to Being Alone,’ ‘Moving Back Home,’ and a zine all about Corpus Christi (the hometown of Selena, duh). However, my ultimate favorite zine of hers is ‘Guide to Dating Gangsters’ which has two volumes. I can verify having dated my share of what she calls “traditional thugs” that her knowledge of the subject is legit. Her advice is also sagely and discreet: “Please don’t date broke-ass thugs. If he or she got too many kids, got no job, is disrespectful to his or her momma, or is just plain lazy… Keep on Moving. Life is too short and there are too many fine mofo’s out there. Just sayin’.” I feel that.

Exhibiting Saturday April 25th.

Cósmica

All-girl art collective Cósmica is debuting their second zine called ‘Baby Girl Dreams’ this Saturday. ‘Baby Girl Dreams’ is an ode to the teenage creative class, their style, and artistry. Each contributor compiled diary entries, memories, and visual symbols from their youth to summon 90s girl power while allowing the reader to contemplate their own teenage artistic production. In the vein of summoning childhood memories, Cósmica member April Ibarra Siqueiros will also be exhibiting her personal zine ‘Valley of Paradox’ which talks about the multiplicity of historical narratives and her own stories from back when. Additionally, Itzel Alejandra Martinez will be selling her zine ‘Lupes’ – a compilation of photographs taken of the Virgen de Guadalupe during her travels around the Southwest U.S..

Exhibiting Saturday April 25th.

Dave Ortega

El Paso native Dave Ortega is a great mind, illustrating comics that unearth microhistories about colonialism of the Americas, Mexican-American histories, and the stories of his ancestors. His newest zine ‘De Las Casas’ outlines some of the horrific acts of the Spanish conquest and centers on the friar Bartolome de las Casas and his championing of a more humanist approach to Native American relations. He also has zines revolving around stories his abuelita told him about escaping from Mexico during the Revolution. Another zine I picked up last year was ‘Dichos’ an illustrated booklet of proverbs en español. His work is meaningful, and gives a much-need historical perspective in an accessible format.

Exhibiting Sunday April 26th.

Usagi Por Moi

Jannese Rojas, tabling as Usagi Por Moi, has a zine called Friducha where she juxtaposes illustrated elements of her daily artistic life with those of Frida Kahlo. Her white shaggy puppy next to Frida’s xoloitzcuintli or Mexican hairless dog, her brick Brooklyn studio and the studio mansion Frida shared with Diego, her sweet treat of creme puffs with Frida’s limes with coconut etc. It’s cute. Check out Friducha and her other zines on Sunday.

This week the city of Austin will morph into the musical media monstrosity that is SXSW. People from all over the world will flock to the city to see music, film, and participate in the tech/interactive elements of the festival. In recent years SXSW has been critiqued for becoming controlled by corporations and inaccessible to not only festival-goers (a music badge starts at $650,) but also to budding musicians who don’t agree with the restrictions participating in official SXSW events entails. To many, the festival is no longer an event to see and hear undiscovered musical talent but is now just a tool for corporations to shove its products and Miley Cyrus-esque musicians down your throat.

In other words, SXSW has lost its indie appeal.

But instead of just giving in to the man, many culture creators and curators have opened up alternative spaces for a parallel unofficial SXSW experience. I’ve been doing the unofficial SXSW for years and never had a badge or wristband, and it’s always a good time. There are always strategies to see shows for free (and get drunk for free) on the corporate dime. However, the local and unofficial scene has grown into an alternate festival and is pretty damn fun in and of itself. Here are a few unofficial SXSW shows showcasing Latin@ talent at SXSW 2015.

Friday, March 20, 1pm-7pm: Global Local

Global Local, previously ‘Listen Global, Act Local,’ is a space curated by the Sol Collective– an organization that aims to bring together art, culture, and activism. The vision for the show seeks to unite global sounds with an air of consciousness. There will be an eclectic showcase of musical talent as well as live art by Kalakari, Trust Your Struggle, and LURAC. Artist collective Mujeres Mercado will also be vending an array of handmade goods at the event. Artists performing at this year’s showcase are: Scatter Their Own, Etagg, WiseChildQuese IMC, Buyepongo, RDACBX (Rebel Diaz, Vithym, King Capo,) Tef Poe and T Dubb-O, Gabriel Wolfchild, Queens D. Light, El Indio , Precolumbian, DJ Riobamba, Royal Highness, DJ Sound Culture and other special guests.

Kenny Dorham’s Backyard1106 East 11th

Friday, March 20, 2-7pm: Future Sonidos

Future Sonidos is a punk music showcase put on by Queer Qumbia en Tejas and House of Shakur — community organizations that create explicitly safe spaces for queer people of color. Performers will be Chulita Vinyl Club, Sodium, Tiarra Girls, Olmeca, Malportado Kidsand Pink Leche. The event will be held at Treasure City Thrift where they will be having a $1 sale. Yessssss.

Treasure City Thrift2142 East 7th StreetAustin, TX 78702

Saturday, March 21, 12pm: The People's Party // Fiesta Popular

Everything about this party is badass: it’s supporting a cause, it’s being held at an anarchist bookstore, there will be tamales, and the musical acts are great. All proceeds will benefit Youth Rise Texas– a youth leadership project aiming to fight against immigrant detainment, deportation, and the prison industrial complex. Tamales and other foods will be sold from local Austin caterer Conjunto Contigo, and performers will include: LLAMV LLVMA, Rebel Diaz, Olmeca, Krudas Cubensi, Marcus Frejo/Quese lmc, The ReMINDers, and more.

MonkeyWrench Books110 E North LoopAustin, TX 78751

Saturday, March 21st, 12pm: All Latino Auditorium Shores Showcase

This is actually an official SXSW event but it is open to the public. You simply have to pick up a guest wristbands which will be available for pick up before you enter the event. Tejano legends Intocable, energetic tropical Bomba Estereo and Compass – a collab between Mexican Institute of Sound and Toy Selectah – will be performing. The event is part ofSXAmericas, SXSW’s effort to include the work of more Latino and Latin-Americans.

Auditorium Shores800 W Riverside DrAustin, TX 78704

Sunday, March 22, 12-7pm: Latin American Cultural Showcase

On the last day of SXSW, when most people call it quits, there will be another specificallyLatin American showcase of artists Diogo Poças, Estrela & Teo Ruiz, and Buyepongo. DJ Busca will be spinning and there will be art, food, performing arts and dancing.

Kenny Dorham’s Backyard1106 E 11th.Austin, TX 78702

Sunday, March 22, 5-9pm: #CODESWITCH

This party has it all: “ethereal goddess trap operas to the diasporic global thump of hot and sticky beach cumbia riddim, to Black American proverbs and PSAs.” Sounds like a really fun way to end your SXSW weekend if you still have the energy. This event is also put on by Queer Qumbia en Tejas and House of Shakur in an effort to unite black and brown people through the celebration of culture.

The Sahara Lounge1413 Webberville RdAustin, Texas 78721

Sunday, March 22, 5-9pm: PELIGROSA

Last but not least, you can always get turnt to the cumbia/trap/hiphop/all things danceable mash up mixes of the Peligrosa djs who will be playing unofficially all week. Tuesday will be their SXSW opening ceremony at The Volstead, and Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday they will be posted up at Chupacabra Cantina.

It would be really sad and dangerous if all you consumed was the free sweet tea vodka and energy drinks during your time at SXSW. Austin is not only a Tex-Mex paradise but also a vegan/vegetarian food mecca if you’re into comida sana. If you’re visiting Austin for the first time, you’ll quickly learn that real tacos are cheap and that this whole time you’ve been bamboozled– charging $5 for a taco is an actual sin. With the help from a few Austin foodies and as an ex-Austinite, I present you with a list of some recommendations on where to grub. If the list is heavy on the margaritas and tacos, sorry but not sorry!!!

Buen provecho – and please add any other recommendations in the comments section. See you in Austin!

1

Veracruz All Natural Tacos

This is the taco trucks of all taco trucks. You can’t go wrong with an al pastor taco, but really every single taco kicks ass here. The aguas frescas are a little pricey at $4 pero son ricas. There are 3 locations the demand is so high.

Takoba

This is a tight brunch or happy hour spot with a romantic ambiance and a beautiful patio. Their spicy mango-habañero margarita is on point, and they have mezcal cocktails. The owner is from Aguascalientes and brings that legit Mexican flare to the food.

Mr. Natural

This is a vegetarian/vegan/gluten-free haven where there is a special vegetarian Tex-Mex section. Sunflower tamales exist here and they are bbbbbbomb. Order them in the tamale plate or the soya guisada–their vegetarian take on carne guisada. Licuados and jugos are also on the menu. Props to the spinach pineapple agua fresca

Mi Madres

A sweaty tall glass of horchata with a plate of spicy migas, huevos rancheros or chilaquiles. If you have an undying hunger, the beef fajita burrito stuffed with fries is a great way to kill yourself slowly with Tex-Mex. The cafe de olla is pretty damn good as well.

Taco Window on Manor (formerly Taco Mex)

This is a taco window, not a taco truck. The taco de nopales con huevo is the best, and they’re so, so fresh. People rave about the fish tacos, and the green sauce? I’ve seen Facebook posts about the green sauce.

Taco Window2611 Manor Road

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Tyson's Tacos

They serve breakfast tacos all day, and if you’ve never heard of a breakfast taco (many New Yorkers haven’t) they are what will power you through your SXSW adventures. Their tacos also have the best names: the “White Girl” is a basic potato, egg, and cheese taco. lololol. Also, some of their tacos have crushed Takis inside. Yessssss.

Mother's Cafe

This is really an Austin brunch staple. It’s very easy to forget to eat during SXSW but if you start your day here, you will be good to go. Everything is organic and vegetarian — a good balance for all that free alcohol you’ll be ingesting.

Valentina’s Tex Mex BBQ

Alright, so how could I make a list of Tejano foods and not mention BBQ? This place truly blends your Mex with your Tex. They have “traditional” BBQ like brisket, pulled pork, and mesquite bbq chicken while also offering fajita, carnitas, pollo or brisket with lime and guacamole twists.

Princess Nokia's new video for the track "Young Girls" presents a feminist paradise that is filled with strong and beautiful brown women. The clip helps bring Nokia's evocative lyrics about a female-centered utopia to life with images of a tribe of women bouncing in dance circles, picking berries in a fairyland forest, and searching for treasures in a stream.

The song, which appeared on her Metallic Butterfly release, is essentially a homage to fertility and motherhood, and it showcases the deep respect Nokia, whose real name is Destiny Frasqueri, has for young mothers.

"People look down on teen moms and young mothers when they are the most gracious and significant women on this Earth," said Nokia. "They sacrifice their freedom and their lives to give life. I don't think people realize what they have to go through—the shaming our society puts on them. I mean, we've been having children as teenagers since the beginning of time."

The video also presents a diverse cross-section of young women. It features girls with West African, Polynesian, Taíno, Caribbean, Dominican, Haitian, African American, Mexican, South American, Palestinian, and Jewish backgrounds. (Nokia's own lineage includes Taíno and Yoruban.) This diverse cast, which was largely made up of Nokia's friends, helped Libin present "a visual representation of body types and colors that don't get [offered] in media and in music videos."

For Libin, the goal of the video was to show that women can create a community together. That's a sentiment that falls right in line with what Nokia likes to call "urban feminism" or "feminism for the ghetto woman," which involves a sisterhood like the one shown by women in the video that exists beyond the male gaze.

Spirituality and respect for nature were very important to Nokia when she was shooting this video. This is because, from the age of six, she has participated in Taíno ceremonies called areitos and was exposed to spiritual practices of the Cherokee, Lakota, Seminole, Mexica, Azteca, and other Central American native peoples. She told me, "The imagery in the video are visions of me in different parts of my life and the traditions I've carried into my adult life, whether it's my nature, spirituality, or the identification of being a natural witch."

It's thanks to all of these compelling ideas—"urban feminism" and spiritual allusions—that "Young Girls" is one of the most exciting and thoughtful music videos to hit the internet this year.

There's a rage blazing across Mexico. It's due to the disappearance, and most likely massacre, of 43 unarmed male students from Ayotzinapa Normal School, a teacher's college known for it's radical and leftist politics that is located in the southern state of Guerrero.

It all started on September 26 in the town of Iguala, when police opened fire on three buses full of students, who were en route to protest education reforms and to demand more resources for their college. In that altercation, people were killed and 43 students were arrested. The cops then handed the students, who were mostly from indigenous and rural campesino towns, over to cartel itmen from the drug gang Guerreros Unidos (United Warriors). They haven't been seen since.

Days after the brutal scene in Iguala, ass graves were found in the nearby jungles. However, the corpses have ot yet been identified as those of the Ayotzinapa 43. The bodies could be victims of some other violence perpetrated by the drug war and the accompanying political and olice corruption prevalent in Mexico. Police and criminals are often synonymous and carry out crimes, murders, and kidnappings with impunity.

Early Tuesday, mayor of Iguala and fugitive Jose Luis Abarca and his wife Maria de los Angeles Pineda, who stand accused of ordering the assault on the students, ere caught and arrested in Mexico City. uerrero governor Ángel Aguirre has also tepped down after evidence arose that he ignored the corruption in Iguala.

In reaction to the disappearances, protests have resounded across Mexico demanding the Ayotzinapa students be returned alive. Along with the outrage has come an outpouring of art—protesters carry arge-scale printed portraits of each student as they march in the streets demanding their return.

Yescka is a Oaxacan street artist and founder of the political art collective ASARO (Assembly of Revolutionary Artists of Oaxaca). He created wheatpaste posters of five young men in postures of surrender as red spray paint drips off their backs. Three figures with their pants at their ankles wear soccer jerseys that read "Justice," "Ayotzinapa," and "October 2"—the day of the laltelolco Massacre. Yescka says the piece functions as a memory connecting the Ayotzinapa student disappearances with the assassinations of an uncertain number of students by military police in the Tlaltelolco neighborhood of Mexico City in 1968. Both events were horrific and have the ring of state-sponsored corruption, though they happened 46 years apart.

Gran Om, a visual artist who comes from Mexico City, illustrated a more mournful piece (above) inspired by the missing young people . The graphic says. "Friends, students of Ayotzinapa, your town awaits you. They took them alive and that's the way we want them. Alive!" This demand has been the protesters' chant since communities from Mexico to Barcelona organized in gatherings of solidarity.

Online, graphic artists from all over have added their own portraits of the missing students to a Tumblr called Ilustradores con Ayotzinapa or " Ilustrators with Ayotzinapa." Each illustration is a detailed portrait of the missing student: a face in a dreamy watercolor of rainbows; another face, crying and rising from Mexico choked by cactus; a third face gagged with the Mexican flag.

"I am Alejandra, and I want to know where Antonio Santana Maestro is," one portrait declares. Each day the number of illustrations grows while the likeliness the students are alive diminishes.

This past weekend, as communities celebrated Dia de Muertos, or Day of the Dead, a Mexican tradition where families honor loved ones who have passed on, many people included portrait images of the ayotzinapa 43 in their altars. Others left them off their altars because they maintain hope that the students are alive. Either way, the hashtag #Ayotzinapa and the art associated with it has become a vehicle for drawing attention to the national problem of injustice toward the young, poor, and progressive.

Ernesto Morales is quite the jack of trades. He runs a design firm; he’s a DJ known for a party in Boston called Picó Picante; he’s a video producer, inventor, photographer and brand strategist, and now he’s entering the world of fine art with a project called Object Solutions.

At first you might not see Object Solutions as an artistic endeavor but upon closer inspection, the project reveals itself as multifaceted. Object Solutions is a semi-fictitious design firm inventing and producing products that provide solutions to dark and obsessive first world problems. Take a look at the videos and you’ll see an array of products aimed at curing exaggerated emotions like poisoning resentments and obsessive compulsive cleanliness.

One of the videos in his series explains the Full-Body Moist Towel as “a personal, portable hygiene blanket.” The targeted audience for the Full-Body Moist Towel is a person who wants to devour a particularly messy meal like saucy ribs without restraint and leave no trace of their sticky consumerism. This product taps into the human desire for an uninhibited hedonism where all the consequences can pristinely be wiped away. “Life offers an onslaught of filth at every turn and the full-body moist towel offers a refreshing alternative,” the narrator explains.

We’ve all seen the As Seen On TV ads for gadgets that fix life’s small yet troublesome tasks like fast vegetable choppers or wall devices that release high-pitched sounds only animals can hear and act as bug and rodent repellent. My mother is obsessed with these devices. I own a ridiculous plastic tuna can strainer and several soda tops that retain the carbonation for your unfinished canned soda because of her appreciation for little inventions. Mexican moms love things that promote conservation.

The products of Object Solutions share qualities with these As Seen On TV or SkyMall products, but include a twang of irony. Other products include a magnifying spoon that allows you to inspect food in public before eating it. Then there’s the rotisserie patio table, which allows dining partners equal sun distribution when sitting outside. The quiet resentment that builds when your partner has the optimal seat is described as the time when “a moment of would-be beauty becomes a moment of private agony.” And then there’s the lint investment system for chronic recyclers. Expelled lint can be accumulated and reused as a new piece of clothing– “a simple laundry cycle becomes an investment into the future of fashion.” Can product design go beyond fixing task efficiency and actually delve into the realm of optimizing emotional equilibrium?

One might view the videos as sketch comedy, others may see the critique of consumerism embedded in the sarcasm. Then there are those who want to actually buy the products. Maybe it’s design theater or a new form of philosophical invention art, but maybe there’s something deeper and darker about the human condition to be seen in these absurd fabrications. Check out Object Solutions at http://www.objectsolutions.net/ and decide for yourself.

Inspired by Peruvian flora and fauna and born with an innate desire to draw, Patricia Mera has arrived in New York to live out dreams of art and creative movement. Cusco to Miami to San Francisco to New York was her geographical trajectory– assorted and diverse like the elements of her artwork. In her pieces, Mera assembles, imagines and creates collages from found elements, ink and marker drawings, watercolors and images from magazines. The results are intricate, provocative and tell her personal story.

“I need to make things. Some people need to go running, some people need to cook. I need to draw,” Mera told me over fancy beers at her basement studio in Bushwick. Her work tells the story of a disciplined wanderer and creative who traveled from Latin America gathering snippets of imagery along the way. Mera says her artistic breakthrough happened in Peru where you can feel the ancient energy of the land and it’s easy to draw inspiration from the landscapes.

In her mixed-media collage ‘Natural Thoughts,’ networks of cellular detail you might see under a microscope combine with knobby branches, and pools of water with floating reeds. These elements all gush from a pulsing heart-shaped center. The geometrical patterns in this work and many of her other pieces have antecedents in the vibrant textiles made in the mountains of the Andean regions of South America.

An image of the Virgen makes a cameo in her oeuvre and alludes to her classical training at La Escuela de Bellas Artes in Cusco. She’s doesn’t come off as religious by nature but there’s a spiritual sense of meditation in her collages you can see with the traces of repetitive markings and obsessive consistency. The work can also be hypnotic, which makes sense when she talks about her influences: psychedelic rock, the videos and drawings of Bruce Bickford and Daniel Johnston–a brilliant musician with an array of psychological problems.

However looking at the entirety of her work, the subjects and materials she uses are diverse. They are consistently a mash up of ink, marker and pencil drawings, and realistic cutout images.The introduction of non-drawings like photographs or magazine images give her collages an avant garde appeal. She has works that include female nudes from Playboy magazines, images of people and animals, skulls and an abundance of nature. She also showed me sheets of typed-on tracing paper she found in Berlin at an abandoned beer factory, which she will use in new work.

After finishing art school in San Francisco with a thesis show where she created visual illustrations of the poetry of Arthur Rimbaud, Mera showed her work in Berlin and soon after moved to New York where she’s been living for five months. Mera had an opening this past Saturday in Oakland at Naming Gallery, where she muralized the walls of the space and threw an eclectic art party. Stop by if you’re in the area, but if you’re in New York, keep an eye out because she’s bound to be spreading her work around the five boroughs soon enough.

Raspa-shaped art toys, alternative Latino zines, and chola-fied flygirls who poured drinks and danced cumbias set the stage for the release party put on by Puro Chingón Collective Saturday. Oh, and of course piñatas. “You can’t have a party without a piñata,” said collective member Claudia Aparicio-Gamundi. This past weekend the art collective Puro Chingón Collective celebrated its second year being together, released the fourth installment of their DIY magazine ChingoZine, and launched their first line of art toys named Chingolandia.

There’s something about beating the crap out of a candy-filled papier mâché Dora the Explorer while blindfolded that brings out the best of a party. Piñatas at Tex-Mex parties create an atmosphere of uninhibited fun, which is exactly what the Puro Chingón Collective embodies. Since 2012, with the release of the first edition of ChingoZine, Puro Chingón Collective has infused its creative pursuits with an air that lacks pretension, while highlighting relevant, accessible art from a community often excluded from traditional arts arenas.

Claudia Zapata, James Huizar and Claudia Aparicio-Gamundi are the goofy trio of Austinites that make up Puro Chingón. They act like cousins waiting for their turn to retell some embarrassing story about one another and met while working at local Austin museumMexic-Arte. They are a disciplined group continuously thinking of ways to expose the arts already embedded in Latino communities. The first product of this collective was ChingoZine, (not to be confused with Chingo Bling) a DIY magazine that publishes doodles, drawings, and artistic imaginings of Latino creatives.

ChingoZine was the first and still is the only Latino zine to come out of Austin, which is funny because Austin is by nature an artsy city. Puro Chingón said, “There’s not an outlet for us. There’s nothing that permits us as brown people to participate in the art scene that everybody else is participating in.” Claudia Zapata, the editor for ChingoZine, talked about this exclusion and sometimes even racism regarding Latinos in artistic institutions. As a curator and historian she knows Latinos are constantly omitted or misrepresented in history, and when they are included, the work is often cast as this exoticized “other.” In many ways, the Latino artistic atmosphere is stifled by tropes and stereotypes. Zapata says ChingoZine highlights a group of people that don’t get enough exposure and allows them to create their own imagery with a “very specific balance of multiculturalism that doesn’t seem strained or artificial.”

ChingoZine aims to establish a space where Latino artists can build. Zapata says she wants history to show a varied, nuanced and truthful representation of what kind of art Latinos make. “We want to show that we weren’t just doing luchadores for a Día de los Muertos show at a cultural institution. We we’re doing zines that were alternative, that we’re talking about transnational exchanges and border imagery.” The content within ChingoZines are indeed varied and definitely challenge your idea of what could be dubbed “Latino art.”

ChingoZine’s logo plays off Lowrider magazine with gradient lettering, sexy tattooed sad girls and vintage Chevrolets. Inside you’ll find a range of graphics by artists whose styles run the gamut– an illustration of a rockabilly tribal dancer, a double-headed Elvira, or an elaborately shadowed portrait of a tattooed man. It’s an archive of the inane and sometimes genius ideas hidden in sketchbooks of people who might not even consider themselves artists.

ChingoZine releases issues of their zine twice a year, and they now have a toy line called Chingolandia. The first edition of 3 hand-painted resin toys Don Raspa (my favorite,) Mapache Bear, and the Great State of Tejas are all available on their site.

Puro Chingón was born out of the frustration with arts institutions and their lack of relevant content concerning pan-Latinos. This collective and their zine can be seen as a way to extract artistic content that already exists in our communities, so check them out onFacebook and Tumblr. Buy the zine or prints of the work, get inspired or even submit your drawings to Puro Chingón. They’d love to see your work!

Contrary to what was covered in the media, Spike Lee didn’t just address the issue of Brooklyn gentrification last Tuesday at the Pratt Institute in Clinton Hill. The famed film director critiqued Black youth culture’s relation to education, discussed the politics of accurate depictions of people of color in film and talked about his come-up in the film industry. However, instead of contextualizing the discussion, the media sensationalized Lee’s remarks. Then, three days after his frank observations about racial, economic, and cultural transformations of Brooklyn neighborhoods were published on all major news networks and blogs, from CNN to Gawker, Lee’s father’s home in Fort Greene was vandalized. “Do the Right Thing” and the anarchy symbol was spraypainted on the street level of their brownstone.

“Why does it take an influx of White New Yorkers in the South Bronx, in Harlem, in Bed Stuy, in Crown Heights for the facilities to get better?,” was the quote that lassoed the crux of his passionate remarks on gentrification. The question seemed relevant as Lee was addressing an audience at one of the premiere art and design schools in the nation that has facilitated much of the gentrification in Clinton Hill and its surrounding areas. Most news outlets described it as an emotional “rant,” another outburst from an angry minority and left it at that. But those remarks were couched in a hotbed of information about Lee’s background growing up in Brooklyn when there weren’t cake-pop stores or fancy vegan, gluten-free bakeries. In the Fort Greene of Spike Lee’s adolescence, Myrtle Avenue was called Murder Avenue.

What you didn’t hear from the blurbs and sensational reports was that Spike Lee came from a highly educated family. His father was a Morehouse college graduate and jazz musician. His mother was an art teacher. His grandmother, who was two generations removed from slavery, had a degree from Spelman College in Atlanta and taught art for 50 years. Lee’s family was highly supportive of his career in filmmaking. “Spikey, whatever you want to do, I support you,” his grandmother said. And with her social security checks, Lee’s grandmother put him through Morehouse College, film school at Clark Atlanta University, and graduate school at NYU.

If anything, Lee’s parents pushed him to excel. When he got an A his mother would respond with, “Don’t you know you have to be ten times better?” This is the “model minority” complex most people of color face in institutional education. Getting A’s and B’s is simply not good enough when society does not expect you to attend higher education. Lee referenced the high school graduation rate for black males as being close to 50% (in 2010 it was 52%, up from 47% in 2008). For Lee and a lot of his classmates, higher education and particularly artistic endeavours were an unattainable dream without scholarships, extra attention from educators and family support. However, Spike Lee had those family and teacher advocates. Even in college, a professor at Morehouse took special interest in him and spent hours after class helping him edit films.

So Spike Lee is a very special case in how a Black kid from the hood achieves success. His mix of opportunities are rare for a lower middle class kid of color: supportive family, educated family, grandma with the funds, luck (a friend gave him his first super 8 camera for free,) talent that was noticed by an educator, and extra help by that educator. He had a lot of people on his side, working to see him succeed.

And you know what? I think Spike Lee knows this. He has the unique subject position to be able to see things from several sides, and he has the platform to be heard. He grew up in Fort Greene Brooklyn when the trash wasn’t being picked up, there was no police protection, parks and schools were a mess, which brings us to: “why did it take this great influx of White people to get the schools better? Why is there more police protection in Bed Stuy and Harlem now? Why is the garbage getting picked up more regularly? We been here!" With White newcomers to the neighborhood, rents went up, availability of resources went up and people of color were pushed out of their own neighborhoods. And this continues today. Why is it that when a person of color points out an egregious problem with the system, the headline is bombastic? “Spike Lee goes on 7-minute rant against White hipster gentrifiers” and not “Spike Lee points outs persisting problem of Brooklyn gentrification.” Spike Lee isn’t demonizing White people as a demographic, he’s pointing out a problem with the system that White people consistently benefit from-- a system that historically and consistently pushes people of color to the margins, cutting off access to opportunity and progress.

In addition to gentrification politics, Lee analyzed film production politics after being asked why substantive subjects such as mental illness in Black communities were not being addressed through film. He responded with, “When MGM decided to make Soul Plane, we weren’t in the room.” A group of most likely White men decided it would be a great (i.e. profitable) idea to make a film that reproduces stereotypes about Black people. When that was decided, Black people weren’t there to weigh in their opinions, and that’s why those movies get made. He added that, “It doesn’t matter if we have stars that make $20 million,” if we don’t have the vote on what type of movies get made.

Spike Lee is one of the few stars publicly talking about local politics. His first subject of the night was education and how he’s an advocate of higher education. He expressed dismay at how some of rap culture derides education and how some youth seem to be equating intelligence with acting White and ignorance with being Black. Lee fears an uneducated community that sips 40s on their stoop, “smoking that chunky black.” However, the audience was a bunch of Pratt students and Spike Lee admirers, not really the demographic he should be lecturing to stay in school or to “pull your fucking pants up.” I mean, the Pratt Institute is 5% Black as one of the audience members from the African American Student Union pointed out. But was it the audience who needs to be lectured on gentrification issues and respect for established communities? Yep, sure was. Was it also the community who needs to hear his story and how he made a shining career for himself? Yes, because despite the onslaught of gentrification, Brooklyn is now a very mixed community, and there are still Black families who own houses and businesses in the neighborhood. They were the ones clapping when he said “Fort Greene’s the Mecca. Fort Greene Comes First.”